Days Gone By

The years fly by... but moments like this remind me of my own bygone youth. Summers that lasted forever.. and days that seemed like weeks. Each full of endless adventures.

Back then life was a story, unfolding before me. In any given day an empire could rise, fall and give birth to a new kingdom. I strode through the forest near my home as lightly as a sylvan sprite. At turns I was Robin Hood, King Arthur, or some other famous hero.

I could slip betwixt the trees with a lithe grace that was hard to believe, running in a fashion that would be foolhardy or downright dangerous now. At that time I wasn't the fastest boy in school... but I was the fastest one in the woods. Even as I hark back to those days.. my body still remembers the way of it, but it is far too heavy now. The last time I tried to run through the brambles and branches that way was near on 12 years ago, and, as I recall it exhausted my energy within a short couple of minutes.

But back in those mystic days I could run that way forever. Slipping between the trees, through briars and thorns, under brush and over logs. Leaping like a deer over low limbs and twisting in mid flight to pass through vines that were unseen until nearly too late.

Peter Pan would have been envious... and looking back... now I am too.

Farewell halcyon days.